Card with Combined Multi-Touch Sensing and NFC Sensing and Card Reading Device Thereof

The present application claims priority to Taiwan application No. 114108297, filed on Mar. 6, 2025, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

The present invention relates to a card with a function of NFC (Near-Field Communication) sensing, especially a card with combined multi-touch sensing and NFC sensing and a card reading device thereof.

12 FIG. 12 FIG. 70 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 74 74 NFC is a set of communication protocols that enables two electronic devices to wirelessly transmit digital information within a short distance of a few centimeters. In the present, technology of NFC contactless sensing has been widely applied in in our daily lives, such as an NFC transportation card, an NFC credit card, various payment applications on mobile phones, NFC access card, etc. Referring to,presents a structure of a conventional NFC sensing card. The NFC sensing cardcomprises a transparent upper surface layer, an upper printing layer, an inner layer, an NFC sensing layer, a lower printing layer, and a transparent lower surface layer, wherein the NFC sensing layeris located in the middle of the structure and has an NFC circuit for near field communication, and the other layers are configured to protect the NFC circuit of the NFC sensing layer.

13 14 FIGS.and 13 14 FIGS.and 15 16 FIGS.and 15 16 FIGS.and 80 83 82 80 81 90 91 90 93 92 However, in some application scenarios, users must first hold the NFC card for NFC sensing and then operate a user-machine-interface (UMI) to select required items, which are not convenient for the users. Referring to,present a control panelof an elevator. A user is required to hold an NFC identification cardclose to an NFC readerin the control panelto authenticate the user's identity (a first step), and then press a buttonof a destined floor (a second step). That is, the user must complete the aforementioned two steps to control the elevator to reach the destined floor. Moreover, in some application scenarios, users must first operate the user-machine-interface (UMI) and then hold the NFC card for NFC sensing. Referring to,present a vending machine. The user is first required to touch a graphic button of an option display panelof the vending machine(a first step), wherein the graphic button is corresponding to an item the user wants to purchase. Then, the user is required to hold an NFC payment cardclose to an NFC readerto pay (a second step). That is, the user must complete the aforementioned two steps to purchase the item.

A reason for the inconvenience of the aforementioned two-step operation is that NFC cards can only be used for identity authentication, payment, etc., but cannot be used for selection operations such as selecting options, selecting buttons, etc. Therefore, how to enable NFC card users to complete identity authentication and floor selection in one operation step, or how to complete item purchase and card payment in one step is a problem worth overcoming in the field of NFC card technology.

a multi-touch and NFC sensing layer comprising: a sensing layer substrate having a surface; a touch pad sensing area disposed on a side of the surface of the sensing layer substrate; a handheld touch sensing pad disposed on another side of the surface of the sensing layer substrate opposite to the touch pad sensing area; and an NFC sensing area disposed on the surface of the sensing layer substrate and located between the handheld touch sensing pad and the touch pad sensing area; wherein the handheld touch sensing pad is connected to the touch pad sensing area by a wire. In view of the shortcoming that the conventional NFC card mentioned above can only be used for identity authentication, payment, etc., but cannot be used for operation of option selecting, button selecting, etc., the present invention provides a card with combined multi-touch sensing and NFC sensing and a card reading device thereof. The card with combined multi-touch sensing and NFC sensing comprises:

a cover comprising a cover body and an NFC card-reading coil embedded in the cover body, wherein the NFC card-reading coil has two terminals and is wound at least one cycle along edges of the cover body, and the two terminals of the NFC card-reading coil are connected to the NFC microcontroller chip to receive or transmit an NFC communication signal; a capacitive touch panel; and an NFC microcontroller chip. A first embodiment of the card reading device of combined multi-touch sensing and NFC sensing comprises:

a cover comprising a cover body and an NFC card-reading coil embedded in the cover body, wherein the NFC card-reading coil has two terminals and is wound at least one cycle along edges of the cover body, and the two terminals of the NFC card-reading coil are connected to the NFC microcontroller chip to receive or transmit an NFC communication signal; a capacitive touch panel; a display panel; and an NFC microcontroller chip. A second embodiment of the card reading device of combined multi-touch sensing and NFC sensing comprises:

an integrated substrate having an upper surface and a lower surface; and an NFC microcontroller chip; wherein an NFC integrated coil, a touch panel wiring area, and a capacitive touch sensing area are mounted on the upper surface of the integrated substrate, and an NFC integrated coil ground area and an ITO (indium tin oxide) shielding layer are mounted on the lower surface of the integrated substrate; the NFC microcontroller chip is connected to the NFC integrated coil to receive or transmit an NFC communication signal. A third embodiment of the card reading device of combined multi-touch sensing and NFC sensing comprises:

The card with combined multi-touch sensing and NFC sensing and the card reading device thereof of the present invention can simultaneously perform multi-touch sensing and NFC sensing and appropriately combine operations of a card authentication system and a user-machine-interface (UMI) system. The present invention is for identity authentication, payment, etc. and operation of option selecting, button selecting, etc. Therefore, the present invention greatly improves conveniences of daily use for users; for example, a user is able to complete identity authentication and floor selection in one step, or complete item selection and card payment in one step.

1 FIG. 10 10 11 12 13 11 14 15 16 13 17 18 14 18 15 16 17 15 17 10 Referring to, a multi-touch and NFC sensing cardis an embodiment of the card with combined multi-touch sensing and NFC sensing of the present invention. The multi-touch and NFC sensing cardcomprises an upper protecting layer, a multi-touch and NFC sensing layer, and a lower protecting layer, wherein the upper protecting layerfurther comprises a transparent upper surface layer, an upper printing layer, and an inner layerin order, and the lower protecting layerfurther comprises a lower printing layerand a transparent lower surface layer. For example, materials of the transparent upper surface layerand the transparent lower surface layercan be transparent impact-resistant polycarbonate (PC), and materials of the upper printing layer, the inner layer, and the lower printing layercan be polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), glycol-modified polyethylene terephthalate (PETG), or the combinations of PVC, PET, and PETG. Surfaces of the upper printing layerand the lower printing layercan be printed with various texts or patterns for dictation and for users to visually identify the multi-touch and NFC sensing card.

1 2 FIGS.and 12 120 120 1201 1202 123 12 11 13 12 1202 123 128 Referring to, the multi-touch and NFC sensing layeris actually a sensing layer substrate. A surface of the sensing layer substrateis mounted with an NFC sensing area, a touch pad sensing area, and a handheld touch sensing pad. The multi-touch and NFC sensing layeris mounted between the upper protecting layerand the lower protecting layerto protect the multi-touch and NFC sensing layerfrom damages, wherein the touch pad sensing areais connected to the handheld touch sensing padby a wire.

123 1202 120 1201 123 1202 10 123 In an embodiment, the handheld touch sensing padand the touch pad sensing areaare disposed on opposite sides of the sensing layer substrate, and the NFC sensing areais disposed between the handheld touch sensing padand the touch pad sensing area. When a user operates the multi-touch and NFC sensing cardfor reading, the user may hold the handheld touch sensing padby the user's hand (fingers).

121 122 2101 121 122 1201 121 122 121 1201 In an embodiment, an NFC tag chipand an NFC sensing coilare mounted in the NFC sensing area, and the NFC tag chipis connected to the NFC sensing coilwhich is disposed along edges of the NFC sensing area. The NFC tag chipcan therefore receive or transmit an NFC communication signal via the NFC sensing coil. For example, the NFC tag chipcan be an NTAG213 chip from NXP, and area of the NFC sensing areamay be 31(millimeters)*31(millimeters). The present invention is not limited to foregoing examples.

123 122 1 2 3 122 123 In an embodiment, three sides of the handheld touch sensing padare adjacent and opposite to three sides of the NFC sensing coilrespectively to form three side pairs. Each of the three side pairs has a gap with a gap width of d, d, and d, respectively. The gap widths of the three side pairs are greater than or equal to a threshold, respectively. For example, the threshold is equal to 1.1 mm(millimeters), such that the NFC sensing coiland the handheld touch sensing padavoid interference effects caused by excessive capacitive coupling accordingly.

1202 124 125 126 127 124 127 123 128 In an embodiment, the touch pad sensing areahas a first touch sensing pad, a second touch sensing pad, a third touch sensing pad, and a fourth touch sensing pad. The first touch sensing padto the fourth touch sensing padare connected to the handheld touch sensing padby the wire.

123 124 127 In an embodiment, the handheld touch sensing pad, and the first touch sensing padto the fourth touch sensing padare each respectively a metal layer.

3 FIG. 123 128 128 128 Referring to, in an embodiment, the handheld touch sensing padis formed by densely winding the wire, wherein a width of the wireis 0.1 millimeters, and a winding pitch of the wireis 0.1 millimeters. The present invention is not limited to the foregoing examples.

4 FIG. 124 127 128 128 128 Referring to, in an embodiment, the first touch sensing padto the fourth touch sensing padare each respectively formed by densely winding the wire, wherein a width of the wireis 0.1 millimeters, and a winding pitch of the wireis 0.1 millimeters. The present invention is not limited to the foregoing examples.

2 4 FIGS.to 124 127 123 124 127 128 Referring to, in an embodiment, connections between the first touch sensing padto the fourth touch sensing pad, and connections between the handheld touch sensing padand the first touch sensing padto the fourth touch sensing padare formed by the wire.

5 FIG. 5 6 FIGS.and 5 FIG. 20 20 30 35 30 31 311 32 33 36 31 36 31 311 31 32 30 31 30 30 36 36 Referring to, a first card reading deviceis a first embodiment of a card reading device of combined multi-touch sensing and NFC sensing of the present invention. The first card reading devicecomprises a cover, a capacitive touch panel, and an NFC microcontroller chip (not shown in Figures). Referring to, the coverfurther comprises an NFC card-reading coil, a pair of connecting flexible boards, an ink layer, an insulating protective layer(as shown in), and a cover body. The NFC card-reading coilhas two terminals and is wound at least one cycle along edges of the cover body, and the two terminals of the NFC card-reading coilare connected to the NFC microcontroller chip via the pair of connecting flexible boards. The NFC microcontroller chip can thus transmit or receive the NFC communication signal by the NFC card-reading coil. The ink layeris configured to cover an inner surface of the coverto prevent the NFC card-reading coilfrom being visible from an outer surface of the cover. Therefore, the covercomprises an embedded NFC card-reading coil. Material of the cover bodycan be glass or plastic. In an embodiment, an outer surface of the cover bodyis printed patterns, such as multiple button selection areas.

33 31 31 35 30 35 30 34 30 121 122 10 121 35 20 124 127 10 5 FIG. As mentioned above, the insulating protective layeris covered on the NFC card-reading coil(as shown in) to protect the NFC card-reading coil. The capacitive touch panelis mounted on the inner surface of the cover(with the embedded NFC card-reading coil). Moreover, the capacitive touch panelis attached and fixed to the inner surface of the covervia an optical adhesive layer, wherein the optical adhesive can be an optical clear adhesive (OCA) or an optical clear resin (OCR). Therefore, the cover(with the embedded NFC card-reading coil) and the NFC microcontroller chip can perform near field communication with the NFC tag chipand the NFC sensing coilof the multi-touch and NFC sensing card. That is, the NFC microcontroller chip determines whether to accept an NFC tag of the NFC tag ship. The capacitive touch panelof the first card reading devicecan perform multi-touch sensing with the first touch sensing padto the fourth touch sensing padof the multi-touch and NFC sensing card.

7 FIG. 7 FIG. 35 20 124 127 10 35 1 4 4 4 3 1 4 35 Referring to, in an embodiment, when the capacitive touch panelof the first card reading devicecan perform multi-touch sensing with the first touch sensing padto the fourth touch sensing padof the multi-touch and NFC sensing card, the capacitive touch panelgenerates four touch signals Sto Sas shown in, wherein the touch signal Sis less noticeable because the touch signal Sis blocked by the touch signal S. The four touch signals Sto Scorrespond to four positions P1 to P4 on the capacitive touch panelrespectively, wherein the four positions P1 to P4 correspond to a multi-touch recognition pattern. Therefor, the capacitive touch panel is able to determine whether the multi-touch recognition pattern can be accepted.

35 1 1 4 2 1 4 3 1 4 4 1 4 35 The capacitive touch panelcomputes a central position according to the four positions P1 to P4 (not shown in Figures). For example, coordinate of the central position can be an average value of coordinates of the four positions P1 to P4. Or, the coordinate of the central position can be a weighted average value of coordinates of the four positions P1 to P4, wherein a first weight value is a ratio of the signal strength of the first touch signal Sto a sum of the signal strengths of the four touch signals Sto S, a second weight value is a ratio of the signal strength of the second touch signal Sto the sum of the signal strengths of the four touch signals Sto S, a third weight value is a ratio of the signal strength of the third touch signal Sto the sum of the signal strengths of the four touch signals Sto S, and a fourth weight value is a ratio of the signal strength of the fourth touch signal Sto the sum of the signal strengths of the four touch signals Sto S. Therefore, the central position can be regarded as the position of the multi-touch recognition pattern on the capacitive touch panel.

8 FIG. 21 20 21 37 341 37 35 21 36 37 37 36 Referring to, a second card reading deviceis a second embodiment of the card reading device of combined multi-touch sensing and NFC sensing of the present invention. Compared with the first card reading device, the second card reading devicefurther comprises a display paneland an optical adhesive layerfor the display panelto be attached to the capacitive touch panel. Therefore, the second card reading devicehas a display function in addition to multi-touch sensing and NFC sensing. In the present embodiment, the material of the cover bodycan be transparent glass or plastic, and the display panelcan display icons such as multiple button selection areas. The user thus can see images displayed on the display panelthrough the cover body.

9 FIG. 22 20 22 30 35 41 22 41 42 43 44 45 46 41 42 43 44 411 41 45 46 412 41 42 42 411 411 44 411 43 42 44 46 412 46 43 44 45 412 45 42 Referring to, a third card reading deviceis a third embodiment of the card reading device of combined multi-touch sensing and NFC sensing of the present invention. Compared with the first card reading device, the third card reading deviceintegrates the functions of the cover(with the embedded NFC card-reading coil) and the capacitive touch panelinto an integrated substrate. In detail, the third card reading devicecomprises the integrated substrate, and an NFC integrated coil, a touch panel wiring area, a capacitive touch sensing area, an NFC integrated coil ground area, and an ITO (indium tin oxide) shielding layermounted on the integrated substrate, wherein the NFC integrated coil, the touch panel wiring area, and the capacitive touch sensing areaare mounted on an upper surfaceof the integrated substrate, and the NFC integrated coil ground areaand the ITO shielding layerare mounted on a lower surfaceof the integrated substrate. The NFC integrated coilis connected to the NFC microcontroller chip for receiving or transmitting the NFC communication signal. The NFC integrated coilis disposed on the upper surfacealong edges of the upper surface, the capacitive touch sensing areais disposed on a central part of the upper surface, and the touch panel wiring areais disposed between the NFC integrated coiland the capacitive touch sensing area. The ITO shielding layeris disposed on the central part of the lower surface, and a position of the ITO shielding layeris corresponding to a position of the touch panel wiring areaand a position of the capacitive touch sensing area. The NFC integrated coil ground areais wound along edges of the lower surface, and a position of the NFC integrated coil ground areais corresponding to a position of the NFC integrated coil.

42 44 45 43 41 As mentioned above, in an embodiment, materials of the NFC integrated coil, the capacitive touch sensing area, and the NFC integrated coil ground areacan be indium tin oxide (ITO) or metal. The material of the touch panel wiring areacan be metal, and the material of the integrated substratecan be glass or flexible material such as liquid crystal polymer (LCP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), or polyimide (PI). The present invention is not limited to the foregoing examples.

10 FIG. 10 FIG. 50 20 20 10 52 20 10 20 52 50 51 th th Referring to,presents an application operating embodiment of the card with combined multi-touch sensing and NFC sensing and the card reading device thereof of the present invention, wherein an elevator control panelof an elevator has the first card reading device, and the outer surface of the first card reading deviceis printed with multiple button selection areas which are respectively corresponding to different floors. The user can hold the multi-touch and NFC sensing cardof the present invention close to the button selection area which is corresponding to the destined floor, such as a button selection areawith number “6”. When the first card reading devicedetermines that the NFC tag and the multi-touch recognition pattern of the multi-touch and NFC sensing cardsensed by the card reading deviceare acceptable, and the central position of the multi-touch recognition pattern is within a range of the button selection areawith number “6”, the elevator control panelcontrols a displayto display “Card is validated. The elevator is going to the 6floor.” and controls the elevator to go to the 6floor.

11 FIG. 11 FIG. 60 21 21 10 62 21 10 20 62 60 10 60 63 63 Referring to,presents another application operating embodiment of the card with combined multi-touch sensing and NFC sensing and the card reading device thereof of the present invention, wherein a vending machinehas the second card reading device. The second card reading devicedisplays an option interface including multiple selection areas which are corresponding to multiple items. The user can hold the multi-touch and NFC sensing cardof the present invention close to the selection area which is corresponding to an item the user intends to purchase, such as a selection areacorresponding to an item of rice crackers. When the second card reading devicedetermines the NFC tag and multi-touch recognition pattern of the multi-touch and NFC sensing cardsensed by the card reading deviceare acceptable, and the central position of the multi-touch recognition pattern is within a range of the selection areacorresponding to the item of rice crackers, the vending machinecan automatically operate to complete the payment of the multi-touch and NFC sensing cardand control the item of rice crackers in the vending machineto drop into a pick-up box. The user thus can get the item of rice crackers from the pick-up box.

10 123 10 1202 10 20 21 22 2 FIG. Please not that: when the user holds the multi-touch and NFC sensing cardclose to the card reading device, the user's hand should touch the handheld touch sensing pad(shown in) of the multi-touch and NFC sensing card, and align the touch pad sensing areaof multi-touch and NFC sensing cardwith an option area that the user intends to select in the first card reading device, the second card reading device, or the third card reading deviceto prevent capacitive sensing in the option area from unexpected interference by the user's hand which affects the card-reading result.